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I usually carry a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 in my kite bag. It's very portable, decent pictures in outdoors (sure, a DSLR would be better at this, but you have to carry it...) and quite acceptable videos in HD 720P resolution, you can watch an example of the videos I shot with it here:

Big Shout Out of THANKS to everyone who helped with this. I made my choice and ended up with the Cannon SX130. Has some things I like, some things I don't (no viewfinder). Took it out of the box at dinner for a friend's birthday and immediately took some pretty good pictures. Haven't tried on kites yet but seems like it will do pretty well. Not that you need one but this is a good "excuse" to go flying. I will try to post pics. Thanks again for all the input, really helped.

OK, so I'm a bit late with these comments. You've bought your new camera, Imafloater, and nothing I can now say will help you.But ...When I first saw this thread, it got me thinking. What sort of camera would I really need if I wanted to capture exciting pictures of kites in motion?

I'm no camera geek. The last decent camera I ever had was a Kodak Retina 2C, which I bought in Foto Aula in Tripoli, Libya in 1957. Wonder if that shop is still open? I was at RAF Idris. Are there any Yanks here who did time at Wheelus Field, a few miles down the road?

I concluded that any decent digital camera would probably do. EXCEPT that kites mean action. So the camera needs the ability to run off a load of shots in short time.There are some cheap (well, cheap-ish) cameras that will do a burst of shots over (say) a 2-second span. But is that long enough? Don't you want to be able to point the camera at the kite when it's way off, and keep the kite in the viewfinder while you track it and - suddenly - there it is in front of you? Two seconds? Ten seconds? It's all about The Instant, eh?So I looked at cameras that were a bit expensive, but not quite in the SLR range. Sorry, but I didn't find any that had a decent 'continuous shooting' mode.Bother, I thought. (Actually I thought a somewhat ruder word than 'bother', but you know what I mean.)It had to be an entry-level SLR.They were all rather expensive.Except one.

Oh, I wish I'd never seen this thread! I've just ordered a Pentax K-x with a 18-55mm lens. I don't actually need it. You all sort of persuaded me, with your talk of taking interesting kite pics, that it would be, well, nice.£379 bites the dust! That's about $600 where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play.C'mon. Am I right? Yewall are further out of the recession right now that we Brits are! You can afford it!

I want to shoot video of the kite that I am flying WHILE I am flying it. I want to be able to move around as freely as I want while keeping the kite on-screen. Finally, I need to be able to do this without a dedicated camera operator. I've been working with a tripod for some time and, under anything but decent wind conditions, its nearly unworkable to a reasonable degree (for me).

One solution I've found is a helmet-mounted camera, but I really don't care for the idea of wearing a helmet while flying my kites! Also, the video quality of these seems limited and I wonder how well it would work anyhow. The good news is that I have seen some that are well-rated for about $100.

I've also thought that perhaps someone makes a tripod that tracks a remote sensor in order to keep the sensor in focus. That way you could mount whatever camera you like to the tripod. Assuming that the sensor is small (a few grams) perhaps this would work, but it also seems like an expensive solution.

Without spending money try duct taping the camera to your forehead and experiment with the zoom, reviewing how wide or near you need to keep the kite in your shot.

Otherwise bring a friend.

I'll try the tape - seems like that should at least prove or disprove the feasibility.

I've found that most folks flat-out aren't interested in taping others fly. I can't blame them, its boring - even when you enjoy watching what is going on, the viewfinder or screen just makes it too difficult to see what's happening.

tom, if you decide on taping the cam to your forehead i would really like to be the 1 to pull it off LOL

hehe!

No, I will likely fasten it to my bike helmet just to get a sense for how well the video turns out. My concern is that, with the camera moving all the time, even if the video quality is decent, the whole thing with have an "Evil Dead" or "Blair Witch Project" moview motion quality to it.

So far I'm liking the Cannon SX130IS, the speed on it is pretty good for a small camera. Back when God was young I had (still use it) a Cannon AE1 program this kind of reminds me of the great-grandson. I also like it not being one of those tiny pocket jobs that if I didn't sit on it in my jeans pocket would be left somewhere on the field. My job is with alot of teenage boys who have already asked about who gets to use it next - the one who stays on my good side. Waiting not too patiently for the weekend to try it on kites, doesn't help I also have a new kite. Next question would be how to speed up time? Again, thanks to all.

Oh, I wish I'd never seen this thread! I've just ordered a Pentax K-x with a 18-55mm lens. I don't actually need it. You all sort of persuaded me, with your talk of taking interesting kite pics, that it would be, well, nice.£379 bites the dust! That's about $600 where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play.C'mon. Am I right? Yewall are further out of the recession right now that we Brits are! You can afford it!

18-55 is going to be a disappointment to you when shooting kites in flight. You need a good telephoto with a nice low f-stop rating to get really tight shots. Especially if you want to take photos of teams flying. An 18-55 is a very wide angle lens more suited to shooting a mountain range or city scape... or even a whole beach worth of kites... so it will have it's uses... but for shooting an individual kite in flight... your best bet is to shoot with at least a 200 on the high end. As your Pentax likely has a 1.6 frame conversion which means your effective shooting range with a 200 is more like 320mm.

Get the best glass you can afford for the body you are using. Bells and whistles on a camera are not terribly useful most times... and with inadequate glass... useless.

The photos in this thread ( http://www.gwtwforum.com/index.php?topic=4075.0 ) were taken with a Canon 40D with a 70-200mm f/2.8 L lens... and believe me... it makes a difference. *note... there is resolution loss in the posted photos... so they are in reality even sharper than the thread allows to be reflected.

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